Contesting (Un)rootedness: An Examination of Agrarian Memories in Urbanizing Context&#x02014;Tung Chung Valley from 1990s to Present

Stephanie Kwong; Silvia Tse

doi:10.65961/hks-2026-52-007

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香港研究 ›› 2026, Vol. 5 ›› Issue (2) : 6. DOI: 10.65961/hks-2026-52-007

Contesting (Un)rootedness: An Examination of Agrarian Memories in Urbanizing Context—Tung Chung Valley from 1990s to Present

Stephanie Kwong, Silvia Tse^*†

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Contesting (Un)rootedness: An Examination of Agrarian Memories in Urbanizing Context—Tung Chung Valley from 1990s to Present

Stephanie Kwong, Silvia Tse^*†

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Abstract

Tung Chung, Office an isolated agrarian community on the northern shore of Lantau Island, was transformed within a decade into a new town serving Hong Kong International Airport and is now undergoing a second phase of urbanization. This article seeks to explore how agrarian memory associated with this space is produced, contested, and restaged under the current context. Noting a dominant “salvage” logic underneath these memories, we leverage (un)archiving, refocusing archival materials, photographs, and prior studies as to look back to a chain of knowledge producers—including women and residents born after the baby boomer generation who cultivated the land, men who emigrated and returned as village authorities, colonial officials, and academic researchers. Through this exploration, we put forward an epistemology of multi-temporality that holds these competing memories together, resisting a single linear narrative of rural-to-urban transition as progress. We treat memory as an ongoing, politically-charged negotiation, and foreground current knowledge productions that keep Tung Chung’s agrarian present alive.

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Stephanie Kwong, Silvia Tse. Contesting (Un)rootedness: An Examination of Agrarian Memories in Urbanizing Context—Tung Chung Valley from 1990s to Present[J]. 香港研究. 2026, 5(2): 6 https://doi.org/10.65961/hks-2026-52-007

Stephanie Kwong, Silvia Tse. Contesting (Un)rootedness: An Examination of Agrarian Memories in Urbanizing Context—Tung Chung Valley from 1990s to Present[J]. Hong Kong Studies. 2026, 5(2): 6 https://doi.org/10.65961/hks-2026-52-007

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